Oh we do like to be beside the seaside

This fairly eclectic post was prompted by me reading a book featuring an early 19th century English protaganist referring to "the ocean".

Thing the first: my readerly reaction

From a readerly point of view, well, I noticed it. Nothing more than that really. But to me - as a born and bred Brit - that doesn't sound English. I hesitated briefly, then moved on.

I should emphasise that this is not a complaint. This is not me saying I am British and therefore am the ultimate arbiter of how English people in the nineteenth century spoke. I'm sure there are many many other people who have never set foot in Britain who have a better understanding of standard 19th century spoken language than I do. But it's fascinating to me because it's an example of the complexities of how readers filter what they read. How every bit of your experience goes into reading the words on the page.

Thing the second: my take on this

But why doesn't it sound right to me?

The reason is that British people talk about The Sea. Not the ocean (*prepares self for contradictory comments*).

Here's an (solitary and unscientific) example from Persuasion by Jane Austen:

The party from Uppercross passing down by the now deserted
and melancholy looking rooms, and still descending, soon found themselves
on the sea-shore; and lingering only, as all must linger and gaze
on a first return to the sea, who ever deserved to look on it at all,
proceeded towards the Cobb, equally their object in itself
and on Captain Wentworth's account: for in a small house,
near the foot of an old pier of unknown date, were the Harvilles settled.

Why should it be that Brits always talk about the sea? Well, if you look at the map of Britain above, you will note the following:

• Britain has a long and convoluted coastline
• You are never very far from the sea
• Britain has the North Sea to the north and east and the Irish sea to the West
• Between the English coast and France there is the narrow English Channel
• Ireland stands between mainland Britain and the Atlantic ocean for the most part
• Britain is an island but with many near neighbours: France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden.

We have a lot of coastline, a lot of sea. But when I stand on a British beach (or, more properly, when I stand on any beach, as a Brit) I don't look out thinking of thousands and thousands of miles of unending ocean. I think of the lands beyond mine; over there.

Thing the third: some of my favourite beaches

Here are three British beaches that are special to me. There are many more...

Robin Hood's Bay

I couldn't find a photo that really did this special place justice. I wanted to show the breadth of the beach and the old cobblestoned-clifftumbling--fishingboat-village. This was the best I could do but it's much more beautiful than this. It's also close to Whitby Bay, famous for being the place of disembarkation of Dracula - and also for Whitby jet.

Mr T and had a very nice weekend here a decade ago for Mr T's birthday. We camped in Robin Hood's Bay (nowhere near Nottingham if you're wondering - it's in North Yorkshire) and walked from there to Whitby where we had what a good Scot would call a Fish Tea (fish & chips and bread & butter and tea) in the Magpie Cafe. We got the bus back to our tent and drank champagne as the sun set.

Bamburgh Castle

This is Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland. It's a good mid-point meeting place for us with Mr T's family who live in South Yorkshire. We will usually meet them here at least once each summer. Beach games and sandcastles and ice-creams and BBQs on the beach. And, this being Britain, lots of cardigans.

Gairloch beach

Another Mr and Mrs T campsite! This one is in the very north of Scotland and we camped here many years ago - when we were still students in fact. We borrowed an hilarious and very old tent from Mr T's uncle. It didn't have any inner tent or tent poles - instead it had these weird tubes that you filled with air that formed the structure. We were in fits while we were putting it up. Mr T - who has flights of fancy - insisted that we would go to the nearby harbour and buy a lobster from a fisherman. I - being sceptical - laughed at his belief that we would meet a salty old seadog selling his wares on the harbour. But there was a boat and it did have a lobster - though a very sad looking one. It didn't quite fit in the Trangia and the lobster's claw tapped gruesomely on the side of the pot all through the cooking of it.

I couldn't eat it.

Thing the fourth and last: beaches in romance novels

With all this talk of beaches, I've found myself trying to think of romance novels that feature the sea. Not High Seas novels/ pirate novels, but novels with a bit of sea and/or sand in there somewhere. I've already mentioned Persuasion. I also find myself thinking of Devil's Cub in which the wonderfully wicked Vidal kidnaps Mary Challoner and takes her across the Channel to France, thus ruining her. While on board, Mary shoots Vidal, thus leading the way for many other gun-toting romance heroines.

Mary Balogh has lots of nature in her books and there are some beaches in there: Simply Love which is set on the Welsh coast springs to mind, as does One Night for Love in which the unconventional heroine shocks everyone by taking off her shoes and stockings.

One Week As Lovers by Victoria Dahl is mostly set in a coastal area with some key scenes taking place on beaches.

Anything for You by Sarah Mayberry has surfer protaganists.

Charlotte Lamb wrote a lot of books with beach settings. Compulsion is set in the Caribbean - the heroine is living in a silken trap, unaware (in the Nelsonian sense it might be said) that her fiancee is an organised crime boss, till the hero arrives to burst her bubble. It has a strong theme of sexual awakening that is mirrored neatly in the setting and the heroine's need to see that her Eden is something much more sinister; shades of Sleeping Beauty too. Duel of Desire is partly set in Southern France - the hero finally breaks through his engaged secretary's cool reserve when they end up stranded together (a sun-drenched version of my much-loved snow-in plotline). And I can think of at least two novels, Savage Surrender and The Long Surrender (though I suspect there are more) that have high-conflict beach honeymoons (cue lots of suncream action and feeling exposed in bikinis - you get the idea).

These are the off-the-top-of-my-head ones - I suspect I could think of many many more if I put my mind to it.

Do you have any favourite beach-or-sea-set books?